Cormier Won’t Acknowledge Jon Jones

Following Jon Jones throwing shade at the idea of Daniel Cormier being the greatest of all time, with a win at UFC 226, the UFC light heavyweight champion decided to throw some back at his longtime rival.

Speaking to CBS Sports. Cormier said that didn’t respond to Jones, because he’s “out of the game” and compared the former champion to Lance Armstrong.

“[Jones] doesn’t have a platform and I refuse to give him a platform,” Cormier said.

“He’s a nobody. He has been suspended again. He’s mired in controversy for drug abuse. Your issues are tied to steroids, performance enhancers. You don’t get a platform when you’re like that. It’s like me glorifying Lance Armstrong.”

Jones is currently under a provisional suspension from USADA, awaiting his fate for a failed drug test from his UFC 214 rematch against Cormier. Jones won the fight with a third-round knockout, but the win would be turned into a no-contest, and he’d lose his title after a failed in-competition test.

Cormier and Jones were originally set to face off at UFC 200, in a rematch of their 2015 clash, but Jones would end up failing a drug test leading up to fight night. Cormier also questioned if Jones was on PED’s at their UFC 183 fight.

“[Jones] won the fight but, hey, since USADA has gotten involved with the UFC, he only fought one time,” Cormier said.

“He has had four fights scheduled. So he fought Ovince and he fought me but that second one was a no-contest. The Ovince fight was the only time he fought and there was no controversy surrounding it. So I’m pretty sure there was some dirty stuff going on [in our first fight]. That’s why the test results were all jacked up in December.”

“This whole Jon Jones thing has been marred in controversy and never on my behalf,” Cormier said in regards to his rivalry with the controversial former light heavyweight champion.

“So I can’t let that dictate how I approach my career in any way, shape or form. I didn’t do those bad things. I didn’t do steroids. I didn’t get taken out of a fight for steroid abuse once and test positive for steroids a second time. I didn’t get, before the first fight, having rinky-dinky tests to start. There are so many reasons why I shouldn’t be tied to him anymore and I’ve gotten back to the point now where it doesn’t affect me.”